Lathemtown Historic District, Quay Lathem Mule Barn, 11802 Cumming Highway (State Route 20), Lathemtown

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-Q. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Quay Lathem Mule Barn is located at Cumming Highway/State Route 20 (SR 20) in Cherokee County, Georgia. The resource sits on the south side of the highway and stands just west of Matt Lathem Road. The barn is located at latitude: longitude: This point was taken from the center of the Quay Lathem Mule Barn. It was obtained on September 10, using Google Earth There is no restriction on its release to the public.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-Q. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Quay Lathem Mule Barn is a contributing resource to the Lathemtown Historic District. The early twentieth-century barn supports Lathemtown s significance as an intact, rural historic district. The barn stands as a representation of the agricultural community s continued growth and development during the first half of the twentieth century. See the Lathemtown Historic District (HABS No. GA-2445) overview for further discussion of overall district significance. Historians: Marvin Brown, M.A., Senior Architectural Historian, AECOM Sarah Potere, Architectural Historian, AECOM Report Completed October

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-Q. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Georgia Department of Transportation is implementing plans to widen State Route 20 from two to six lanes between Scott Road (near Canton) and North Corners Parkway (near Cumming). The project corridor spans approximately miles and falls within Cherokee and Forsyth Counties. As a result of this roadway expansion, all or part of the Quay Lathem Mule Barn will be demolished. Mitigation efforts were explored and a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was developed between the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Georgia Department of Transportation, and the Georgia State Historic Preservation Officer. This Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documentation (historical narrative report and large format photography) was prepared in accordance with the stipulations of the MOA.

LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, QUAY LATHEM MULE BARN HABS No. GA-2445-Q (Page 2) Description: The Quay Lathem Mule Barn stands on the south side of SR 20 to the west of Matt Lathem Road. It is oriented north toward the highway and is the only extant resource on its lot. The building sits abandoned and has begun to collapse (Figure 3). The early twentieth-century barn is built of frame and clad in a combination of original weatherboards and corrugated metal sheathing. The building s footprint is best described as rectangular and is comprised of an original front-gabled block with a rear shed-roof addition. Both sections of its roof are clad in standing seam metal; however, the original block displays exposed rafter tails. A stepped parapet fronts the building.

The building s primary entrance is centered beneath the parapet and is comprised of a large wood-framed opening that has lost its original door. With the exception of the shed-roof addition, which is open at its rear (south) facade, the building s secondary facades do not retain any additional window or door openings. Limited views to the building s interior revealed exposed dirt floors. The building s framing system is visible and displays original posts, collar ties, and rafters.1 The barn appears to retains its original floorplan and features a center- aisle flanked on either side by stalls. The stalls are delineated by horizonal fencing. A second-floor loft rests above the southern-most stalls.

The rear shed- roof addition also displays exposed framing members, but its floorplan is not clearly discernable. History: Quay Lathem likely erected this mule barn in the when Lathemtown had four such barns and was sometimes known as Muletown. 2 A distant cousin of W.A. Lathem, Quay spent his entire life in the community. The federal census identifies him as attending school and laboring on his father s farm. He married Mae Green and for a time in the they both taught school. The federal census identifies Quay s occupation as public-school teacher.3 According to his World War I and World War II draft registration cards, and the and federal censuses, Quay s primary 1 Denise P. Messick, Joseph, and Natalie P.

Adams, Tilling the Earth: Georgia s Historic Agricultural Heritage- A Context, (Stone Mountain, GA: New South Associates, 70, accessed June files/tillingtheearth.pdf. 2 Cherokee County Heritage Book Committee, The Heritage of Cherokee County, Georgia, 16; Lathemtown, Cherokee Tribune, June 12, 3 U.S. Bureau of the Census, and Federal Censuses; Cherokee County Heritage Book Committee, The Heritage of Cherokee County, Lorene Gibbs Gilleland (born recalled Free Home School and Quay Lathem s classroom: The teachers was strict and he was real strict; Mary Helen Cissell, Living, Laughing and Loving in Old Lathemtown (Orange, GA: Orange United Methodist Women, 28. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, QUAY LATHEM MULE BARN HABS No.

GA-2445-Q (Page 3) occupation was farming.4 To those from and familiar with Lathemtown, however, he was known as a farmer and a mule and horse trader.5 Hollis Lathem, Quay and Mae s son, recalled in a Cherokee Tribune newspaper article that mules would be shipped by train to Canton from Tennessee and then driven to [Lathemtown] barns using a white horse, which the mules were trained to follow.6 According to the article, [Mule-barn owner Bud] Heard said the peak of the mule business was during the and The marked the increased use of machinery for farming and fewer career farmers, added Heard. In all four of Lathemtown s mule barns continued to stand, but they no longer traded in mules or horses.7

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-Q. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Cherokee County Heritage Book Committee. The Heritage of Cherokee County, Georgia Cumming: Walsworth Publishing Company, Cherokee Tribune. Lathemtown. June 12, Cissell, Mary Helen. Living Laughing and Loving in Old Lathemtown. Orange, GA: Orange United Methodist Church, Messick, Denise P., Joseph, and Natalie P. Adams. Tilling the Earth: Georgia s Historic Agricultural Heritage- A Context. Stone Mountain, GA: New South Associates, Accessed June files/tillingtheearth.pdf. Mills, Jerry Leath. Mules. In William S. Powell, Encyclopedia of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Accessed August United States Bureau of the Census. United States Federal Census. Accessed August https://www.ancestry.com/. 4 U.S.

World War I Draft Registration Cards, Quay Lathem, accessed August https://www.ancestry. com/; U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, Quay Lathem, accessed August ancestry. com/; U.S. Bureau of the Census, and Federal Censuses. 5 Lathemtown, Cherokee Tribune, June 12, 6 Jerry Leath Mills, Mules, in William S. Powell Encyclopedia of North Carolina (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, accessed August Mills addressed the matter of horse- following in the Encyclopedia of North Carolina: There is a folk tradition that a mule will willingly follow a white horse; but the truth is that he will follow anything if he wants to and nothing if he does not. 7 Cherokee Tribune, June 12, LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, QUAY LATHEM MULE BARN HABS No. GA-2445-Q (Page 4) U.S.

World War I Draft Registration Cards, Quay Lathem. Accessed June-August https://www.ancestry.com/. U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, Quay Lathem. Accessed August https://www.ancestry.com/. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, QUAY LATHEM MULE BARN HABS No. GA-2445-Q (Page 5) Supplemental Materials 1. Figures Georgia GIO State Imagery September Figure 1: Quay Lathem Mule Barn District Locator Map. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, QUAY LATHEM MULE BARN HABS No. GA-2445-Q (Page 6) Figure 2: Quay Lathem Mule Barn Site Map. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, QUAY LATHEM MULE BARN HABS No. GA-2445-Q (Page 7) Figure 3: Barn north (front) facade. View looking south. (Photograph by Sarah Potere, July LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, QUAY LATHEM MULE BARN HABS No.

GA-2445-Q (Page 8) Figure 4: Interior view of Barn, looking toward SR 20. View looking north. (Photograph by Rob Tucher, September LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, QUAY LATHEM MULE BARN HABS No. GA-2445-Q (Page 9) Figure 5: Interior view of Barn, looking toward southeast corner of main block. (Photograph by Rob Tucher, September LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, QUAY LATHEM MULE BARN HABS No. GA-2445-Q (Page 10) Figure 6: Interior view of Barn, looking toward southeast corner of addition. (Photograph by Rob Tucher, September